Crossing Paths
by DersaFlutterbye
Summary: A stranger intrudes on Sherry's mission to bring Jake back to America. Automatically, Jake takes her under his wind and saves her life. Jake doesn't understand where she came for or who she is until little slip ups start happening. The questions pile up as Jake slowly puts the puzzle pieces together.
1. Chapter 1: The Cabin

This cabin was warm compared to the thick, chilled, snow showering outside. It hadn't been long since we've escaped the massive creature, Ustanak, back in the caves, that disgusting place. I'm completely done with all this once I get the money from the American. I've seen the corrupt world, and I'm just ready to go find my own cave to live in. Sherry is the only person I've seen around that hadn't tried to kill me and that's nice. She sat by the fire, mesmerized by the warm flames dancing in the hollow stone. Click, I just have this Zippo.

I'm surprised the cabin was surviving this storm. I looked out to the thick, horizontal falling, snow, and I just can't wait for it to stop. It's like those rainy days, but I like them days. This time was just a horrible period to work through. Click. Sherry brought these feelings out that I haven't had since my mother died, when I was young. It's nice to be needed by someone.

A dark shadow crossed, slowly, beyond the window. I don't understand what would roam outside in this blizzard, but it wouldn't hurt to go check it out. It would be nice not to be surprised by another infected creature. Click, I gather my Zippo, into my pocket, and headed over to the door.

"I'm checking something out. Stay here," I told Sherry. She gave me a defiant glare, but it went away quickly. The gusts of wind, that smashed against the cabin, might do that for some people.

I opened the door, and it automatically hit me it the jaw from the force of the wind. It didn't surprise me as much as the sudden drop in temperature. There was a slight struggle to close the door, but I shifted my weight and pulled the door till I could feel the latch click. This shouldn't take long.

The cabin wasn't too lengthy to walk. I reached the back, in a few steps, where a snow morphed body was sitting up against the rock. It must have been well below zero, and this… this girl was wandering around practically naked. The heaviest thing she had on is a fluffy coat that covered down to her waist. What the hell is this?

"Hey come on," I said competing with the blowing wind. She didn't budge an inch.

I wrapped my arms around her stiff body and picked her up. She wasn't heavy at all. When traveling back to the cabin door, it seemed like I wasn't carrying anything more than a small bag of books. The door flung open after I contested with the latch. It surprised Sherry which made her jump up from the fire.

"What..." Sherry paused once she saw what I was carrying, a limp body.

"Close the door," I said as I rushed over to the fire and placed the girl near the yellow flames. "Is there any blankets or clothing around?" I demanded Sherry to look.

I took the ice covered coat and placed it near the fireplace to melt and soon dry off. The girl was, maybe, in her mid twenties with such a small frame for this weather. I rubbed her arms, marked up with simple, varying, line tattoos, and her cold skin stole the heat right out of my hands. She wore a thin cotton medical dress that hugged her body and just met her mid thigh. There must be a facility around here or a dumping ground. I gulped as Sherry rushed back from her search.

"This is all I found. No one has been here for a while," Sherry said as she dragged a quilt behind her.

"Warm it up real quick. This ice covered thing needs to come off," I explained. The ties weren't too difficult to deal with, but I fumbled a little with them.

"Where am I?" The frozen stranger struggled to say as she started to gain consciousness. Her head moved around trying to figure out her surroundings, but it wasn't hard to see that she was dizzy. Hypothermia had set it.

"In a cabin," I whispered to her. It looked like her body vibrated as she shivered to keep warm.

"Damn, what a night, yeah?" She tried to laugh.

"I'm going to take this medical outfit off, okay?" I asked her before I continued. "We have a quilt right there being warmed up by the fire."

Sherry was prepared to wrap her up when ready to. The stranger rotated onto her side and just mumbled something inaudible. I took it as a go ahead. It would suck to stay in anything wet and cold. Pulling the last knot, I concentrated on the fabric as I tossed it off toward the dripping coat. Sherry put the quilt over her.

"You know it helps when there is a fire and body heat," the stranger said. "Attack from all sides."

I looked up to Sherry, she looked as if she didn't want to get involved anymore. It was obvious that I was the next warmest thing in the cabin. I took off my dark jacket and put it on top of the quilt to add an extra layer. Then I took off my shirt and tossed it off to the side before sliding under the quilt and next to the chilled body. It felt like her back was burning my chest.

"Can you lift your head?" I asked quietly.

"Sure," she said drowsily.

She lifted her head, and I put my arm under so that I could lay on my hand instead of the hard floor. Her head didn't feel any better against my skin since it was dripping.

"Does anyone have a phone?" She asked.

"I do," Sherry replied skeptically.

"May I use it?" She chattered through her teeth.

Sherry looked to me as I just remained there unmoved. I don't think there is much that can happen here. If she were to call anyone, they won't be able to make it to the cabin to get us. A long moment later, Sherry placed her phone next to the girl then leaned up against the rock by the fire.

I felt the girl's cold body move around as she messed around with the phone. It began to make little noises that sounded like a movie starting. Popping my head up over her shoulder, I looked down to see that she had the phone propped up, with her hand, and a child's movie playing. It was something I've seen advertised around Europe before the outbreak made it over. The screen lit up with little speckles that looked like balloons, and an old grumpy man.

The storm continued to pound against the cabin creating a mesmerizing rhythm. My eyes started to droop along with my body. Everything was really heavy since there wasn't anything to do. Sherry wasn't near us so she must have gone to one of the rooms. The girl… she was still a stranger even though we've been laying here for quite some time.

"Hey," I whispered as sleep seeped in.

"What?" She sighed still shaking.

"Who are you?" I cautiously inquired.

"Vivy," she said. "Most people call me Walking Duck."

I paused and wondered about her nickname. It was rather goofy for anyone who doesn't know her personally. It was probably a quirky thing that she does that people caught onto. As my mind wandered, my eyes closed, and I fell asleep.

I jerked myself awake as an eerie feeling washed over me. Vivy was still on my arm, but I was sprawled out on my back with the quilt pushed off. It was too warm for my liking. Outside, a weapon was loaded swiftly, clicking a few times indicating multiple guns. I guess this was my wake up alarm. Bullets started to rip through the wood sending shards everywhere.

"Sherry!" I yelled out to make sure she was up.

I jumped to my feet and headed over to the window to see groups of people exiting large vehicles. There was no distinct logo to put them with, but they were packing some serious heat that we weren't prepared for. More bullets whizzed through the cabin, one point striking me in the shoulder. I thought I could have finished unscathed, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen.

Vivy was up, wrapped in the quilt, and struggling to search for her stuff. She didn't come with anything so she will have to face the snow head on again. I rushed to her side and tried my best to tightly wrap the quilt around her so that she would stay warm.

"We're going to have to rush them," I told her. "You will have to follow up behind."

She looked me in the eyes, still dazed, and agreed. I quickly dressed myself and went to the door waiting for Sherry. She wasn't too far behind with her gun ready to shoot. The window shattered from more bullets being shot into the cabin.

"It looks like we have some party crashers," I said then looked back to Vivy. This was the right time for everything. "But this cabin is invitation only."

A man tried to crawl through the breach, but I wouldn't allow him to get inside. I lifted my foot and smashed it right into the side of his head where a nice crack was heard before he fell, limp, to the ground. Even after he was down, another one was trying to get in. This time, he was mutated to the point where his body split into a glowing mouth. We won't survive inside this cabin for long.

I opened the door and rushed off to the side shooting whoever I locked onto. A few head shots, then I took cover behind a rock. Bullets ate up the opposite side of this rock, with little pebbles landing on my head. A nice, long, hot shower sounds like heaven once we were out of this mess. Sherry continued forward shooting whoever she could. We both took turns as we pushed these guys back.

"That doesn't look good," I pointed to the one guy with a rocket launcher. "That guy is going to make some noise."

"Where is the girl?" Sherry questioned me as if I was Vivy's babysitter.

With a click, then whoosh of a small missile, the cabin exploded behind us. The cabin was busted up and collapsed in on itself under the disfigured structure. A heavy weight pressed down on my chest as I looked back with wide eyes. Damn, I hope she got out.

I turned back and rushed forward beyond the rock as the bullets zipped by my sides. As I slid across the snow, I was able to get a few more shots out before launching myself onto one of men. This guy wasn't too big, but his gear made up the difference. It wasn't too hard to grab ahold of anything him. There was so much loose fabric all over this guy. I pulled back on the collar making his balance compromised to any attack. Quickly wrapping my arm, fully around his head, I tugged to the side and snapped his neck.

There was a loud rumble in the distance that shook everyone up. Sherry paused to look up the mountain as I ran around, a few groups of people, to get to some cover.

"Jake, we need to go! It's an avalanche," Sherry shrieked in fear. She was looking for a way to get away. My concern was with where Vivy could have gone if she got out of the cabin.

"Hey, over here," a faint voice was heard over by a clearing. Vivy was waving her arms around to get our attention.

"The snowmobiles!" Sherry howled over the the loud noises. We both pushed toward the vehicles.

The gun fire didn't stop as we jumped onto the snowmobiles. They were only to set up to face the safest exit. Sherry started the engine with no trouble and drove forward. I had a little trouble with this old thing. It took a few angry smacks before it roared to life.

"Vivy get on," I ordered. She was back in the outfit she had on when I found her. It was a smarter choice for agility compared to the large quilt, but she was slowing down, from the cold, again. Vivy sat behind me and wrapped her arms around my wait.

"Who are these people?" I could just barely make out what she said.

"Damn. You need to put this on," I said as I quickly removed my jacket and passed it back to her. We both flinched from the flying bullets. "We need to go before we're buried alive." When I felt her arms wrap around me, again, I drove forward to follow Sherry.

The mountain was rough to navigate as lone trees popped up out of nowhere. It was dark, which didn't help the situation. The snow separated into fissures leading to a drop off that we needed to be avoided. We caught up to Sherry, who was struggling on the moving mountain.

"Jump!" Sherry yelled back to us. She pointed to a huge drop off with a ledge on the far side.

Our snowmobiles flew off the edge into free space. We all pushed off so that we wouldn't miss the other side. With a hard landing, we rolled to a stop and listened to the snow fall into the hole like a cold waterfall. I just laid there in hopes that a little rest would help.

"Don't stop!" Vivy cried out. She pulled on my shirt.

The avalanche continued beyond the deep crack. Large blocks of ice, and loose rocks, started to smash down behind us. That gave a good pound to my heart which made me jump to my feet and drive forward. Sherry and Vivy weren't too far behind when we found a tunnel to jump into. We landed hard on the rock, again. The ice piled up at the entrance blocking anyway of escape backwards.

"Are you all okay?" Sherry asked us as we gathered ourselves.

"Don't worry about me, I'm built like a tank," I told her as Vivy remained quiet. My muscles ached from this long day, and I knew it wasn't going to end any time soon.

"Fine. I won't. Let's go," Sherry said blatantly then moved forward into the mine. She made her rounds and came across a sudden crunch.

Vivy and I weren't far behind when my feet met the ground that moved under each step. The shards were made of glass and echoed throughout the tunnel. Vivy wasn't as convenience with her feet. The crunch wasn't as loud as her scream of pain. I turned back to look at her, the pain was easily read on her face. Her leg gave way, and she collapsed onto the glass.

"Fuck," I growled as I went back. We weren't prepared for anything especially broken glass.

"Don't worry about it," Vivy said. She held her hand up to stop me. She cleared an area of glass so that she could sit on bare rock. The glass, that was lodged in her foot, bled in small streams. One at a time, Vivy plucked the shards out and tossed them off to the side.

"Isn't this a bitch?" I said for no particular reason. I was prepared to carry Vivy across the glass.

"Only for the barefoot," Vivy replied seriously. There was no amusement in her dark eyes. "Anytime now, something bad is going to happen."

I was a bit skeptical about what she said, but there have been swarms of men, who've been trying to kill us. Vivy stood up in the cleared glass and looked around with a great deal of concern on her face.

"Here, I'll carry you. We can't have a crippled person when we get out of this," I told her. She looked at me with pursed lips, but there was no other option.

Vivy held her hands out so she could grasp on. I crouched down and pulled her onto my back as she jumped on. She wrapped her legs around my waist tightly. Sherry's steps were slow and steady as she returned.

"There is a door ahead," she declared. "I'm not sure what is on the other side."

We all walked to the door. Sherry was a good distance ahead with crunching footsteps which told us about long the glass stretched in the tunnel. Vivy was mumbling to herself about how stupid she was to rush into an unfamiliar place where glass ate up her feet..

"Are you going to live?" I asked a little sarcastically.

"Of course," she replied abruptly.

We reached the door where I gently put Vivy back on the ground, avoiding all the glass. Sherry opened the door, and we popped through into a large room. Stopping just before the railing, we looked over to see an Ustanak, a great thing to come across right now.

"Well look who it fucking is," I growled but was hushed by Sherry.

A door opened, on the other side of the room, and a man walked in. He paused to look up at an ugly glowing bug as it flapped around. It turned to a red color indicating something. The Ustanak turned towards the bug and, instantly, rushed the man, and crushed his body before tossing it over the creature's shoulder. We all stood there in shock.

"Jesus Christ. What does it take to kill that thing?" I said a little surprised that the Ustanak was still alive. This creature needed to be taken down for good.

Sherry peered around and watched the bug flap along their merry way. She observed the colors and locations.

"I think he's using those bugs to sniff us out. Be careful," Sherry said before taking off. I watched the bug's movements and calculated the best time to proceed.

I wandered along a path down to the left where a couple bugs flew about. They were lazy and sticking to a small area. Vivy was following right behind me with a good enough distance for a combat area. She was very good at awareness.

"Do you think you can kill these bugs without making a noise?" I asked her when I paused right by a wall. She walked up on me and looked me up and down like I was someone to compete with.

She went ahead and attacked some bugs. It looked like she wasn't completely useless since she found a way to take the flying shits out. We crawled up some ledges and came across a bridge type clearing where one of the bugs hovered. We both crept up on it, but it rotated around and pinged our location. A loud growl echoed through the caves and then a drilling sound accompanied it. The Ustanak was on his way.

"Shit. We need to hide," I whispered to Vivy, who was already pulling me back the way we came from. She tried to jump up and grab the ledge, but she was off by a few inches. I gave her a boost when the thumping of the Ustanak's feet came at my heels. I wasn't far enough up when he grabbed my leg, digging his drill into my flesh, and pulled me back to his level. My leg burned and was beginning to soak itself with my blood. It looked like these clothes are finished with.

"Jake!" Vivy shrieked loudly. She was on her knees leaning over the edge of the stone.

The Ustanak heard the noise and looked in the direction it came from which gave me an opportunity to move away. I needed to get back up to where Vivy was, but the monster blocked that direction.

"I'll meet you on the other side," I yelled up to her. It really was just a hope more than anything. This Ustanak was going to be right on my ass in a matter of seconds if I didn't put a rush order on getting out of here.

These tunnels were a big maze as I limped my way through them. The Ustanak's angered growls could be heard throughout these dense channels. My leg was shredded up. It was bright red with fresh blood oozing out with each step. I hope that all the bugs were killed off so there is just a straight shot out of here. There was a sudden scooting sound that stopped abruptly before beginning again. I stopped for a moment to check out the wound on my leg when a sudden crack rang out through the tunnel followed by the Ustanak's thundering pace.

"Shit, this guy doesn't miss a beat," I whispered to myself. He had to be after Sherry or Vivy.

I got myself back up to pace and wandered towards where the Ustanak was last heard. He pounded something up against the wall and drilled it violently. Sherry ran out from the corner and straight into me.

"Woah, where is Vivy?" I asked her once I steadied her to her feet.

"The creature was on our tail. She must has split off in a different direction," Sherry replied out of breath. "There is a door back there that leads to another place. We need to get here."

"We need to find Vivy, right now," I expressed statically. Sherry wasn't the one to fight with me. She just mumbled a little bit, and we headed back back.

With a hard thud of his foot, the Ustanak walked right by us. We held our breath to remain as quiet as we could. He dragged his drill along the side of the tunnel, chipping rock shards off the wall. We didn't pause for very long since our goal was to get the fuck out. I limped in the wake of Sherry's maneuvering. She lead us to the room she told me about that had a door at the far end, and to our surprise, Vivy was right there, sitting up against it.

Sherry and I rushed over to the door to check up on how Vivy was holding up. She looked drained of all energy and labored with her breathing. I held my hand out to help her up, but it was like she couldn't focus on any one thing. Her eyes darted from me to Sherry to the ground and then back.

"Are you okay?" I wondered while I searched for possible heavy bleeding wounds.

"Passing right by," she slurred. Vivy wasn't making any sense, and when I got her to her feet, she couldn't hold up well. Her equilibrium was far off balance.

"Hey," I gently grabbed the side of her head and looked right into her eyes. They continued to dart around, and she didn't want to keep her head still.

"What's wrong with her?" Sherry inquired to a numb skull. I didn't know Vivy and what could possibly be wrong. I've never seen this type of response in a person.

Vivy curled over holding her sides making me adjust with her. This wasn't going to be good if we don't get out of here. She probably was dehydrated from all the exertion we were put through. I pulled her up on my back and held onto to her the nest I could. Her arms wrapped around my neck with her hands falling down to my chest where her fingers dug into my chest. She was trying to hold back her cries of pain, but I could feel her whimper against my neck.

We all walked through the door and entered another large space where the ground glowed with more glass. Why was there so much glass around this place? We slowly continued and began to step on the shards when the Ustanak busted out of the wall.

"Aw shit… run," I yelled as I just took off ahead. A new burst of adrenaline filled my system to help me get beyond my exhaustion.

We ran up a hill to where a small slit separated us from safety. I pulled Vivy off my back and went through the claustrophobic area.

"Get Vivy through, Sherry," I directed them. "I'll catch her."

I could hear Sherry struggle with Vivy as they both popped out from the hole in the wall. Vivy fell into my arms, and Sherry right off to my side where she landed straight on her feet. The Ustanak shoved his drill through the pocket tearing up the stone around it. We didn't stay long enough to see if he could have made it through. Repositioning Vivy on my back, I took to the ladders, immediately climbing them to the next safe spot.

"You have to be kidding me," I growled with such deep anger.

We were in another room with a hole in the ceiling where the stars sparkled in mockery. I've felt like a mole the whole time we've ran around this place. And there he was again, the Ustanak, standing on more glass. One of his bug friends flapped around his shoulder right shoulder. Then this place dug into me. We went in a fucking circle.

"We can't go anywhere without a key," Sherry declared as she pointed to the only exit we haven't taken. The door had an electronic lock that was illuminated red.

I looked over to the monstrous creature and saw the man's body lying static on the glass. The key, in his hand, was just barely noticeable. Vivy whimpered some more into my neck as she dug her fingers along my chest. Her thighs also clenched harder around my waist. I walked to a secluded corner and put Vivy down to where she couldn't be seen.

"You'll need to stay as silent as you possibly can, Vivy," I whispered to her.

My jacket was loose on her due to our frame difference. She pulled at the sleeve every time she whimpered. It was still obvious that she was trying her best to keep the cries back. With a low growl, she leaned over and puked up bile.

"Holy shit," I placed my hand up on the stone wall and used my other one to bring her back up right. "We need to get you out, now."

Sherry stood back away from us and evaluated the Ustanak. I stepped up to her side with more worry coursing through my system. We need to execute this as soon as possible and get lifted to the nearest hospital. I don't know what was happening to Vivy at all, and it wasn't sitting well with me.

"Do you see that ladder?" Sherry pointed over to a long rusted metal ladder. "I'm going over there while you distract him."

"Sure thing," I said flatly. I can see this going horribly wrong in too many ways.

We split up to get the best tactical advantage. I ran to the opposite side of the room and found some explosives. These should come in handy. Sherry was setting up off the side to where she can easily run in to grab the key. Slowly venturing around the glass plot, I had found a great place to put this small bomb. Once put in place, I hurried over to where Vivy was and stood in front of her. I don't know what this would do, but it was a nice intention.

Sherry was ready, and I was far enough to not get caught up in any mess. I lit the bomb and watched as the Ustanak had grown exceptionally angry and charged in the direction of the noise. Sherry swooped in and snagged the key before running back to the ladder to climb her way back to where Vivy and I were.

I had gone straight to Vivy to retrieve her from the darkness. She wasn't looking any better. She didn't even look like she could move herself at all.

"Hey, Vivy, we are almost there," I reassured her with the softest tone I could muster.

I picked Vivy up the best I could, and we met Sherry at the door. We were almost out of this mess. Vivy wasn't holding up well on my back so I had to hold her in my arms. Sherry slid the keycard through the slit, and the lock chimed a couple times alerting the Ustanak of our whereabouts. A loud roar bellowed out of the creature and then the glass started to sing as he charged in our direction. Sherry and I didn't hesitate to jump through the door and close it behind us. The Ustanak slammed hard agasint the thick metal and dented it to the point where I thought he was about to bust through.

"This has to be over now," I clenched my jaw out of irritation when I saw that the tunnel continued on before us. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Sherry went ahead and came across a door where she struggled to turn the wheel an inch. This made the whole situation harder. I couldn't hold Vivy and open the door at the same time. A loud thud and crash echoed through the channel we were in.

"Hang on to her," I told Sherry. She was hesitant about this motion. "We don't have time."

I passed Vivy over to Sherry where she had tried her best to hold Vivy up. I went straight at the door wheel, turning it as fast as I could. It creaked open enough to where I grabbed Vivy and rushed through.

"Close the door behind us," I demanded Sherry to do.

As she slammed the hatch, I went to the next one in line. I put Vivy down and attacked the metal device, again. The Ustanak slammed up against the previous one, and caved the center in. I pushed through the next hatch a little faster than the last one, and Sherry popped through to then shut it. This seemed to have been going well till this rusted mechanism had some sort of snag on it. The wheel had gotten stuck. I pulled it down with all of my weight in hopes to make it slip up. The Ustanak continued to slam till the door flew off the hinges.

With all of my might, I yanked on the wheel. It slowly creaked then the snag popped, and I met the ground with full force. Sherry pushed through the door and held it open. I crawled to Vivy and picker her up then rushed on through the door where Sherry slammed it shut. The Ustanak was quick to the hatch. It knocked right into it before Sherry could get far enough away. The force had hit Sherry hard enough to where she lost her breath.

"God bless us all," I gawked at the large drill in front of me.

I put Vivy where she could fit then crawled up into one of the seats. Sherry fumbled over to where I pulled her up to coach. I looked around feverishly searching for the start up. Sherry had gotten to it first, and the engine roared to life. The Ustanak punched through the whole stone wall meeting his drill to our machine.

"Son of a bitch," I said under my breath. My anger had been simmering for quite some time now with little slip ups.

We pushed the drill forward, impeding on the Ustanak's will to destroy us. Sparks were flying everywhere around the two competing drills like a large sparkler during festivals. At some points, the machine would sputter, and we thought that it was about to be over for us. The Ustanak was forced back up against the hard stone wall where the machine had won. The Ustanak's drill gave out from the force leaving an opening to his gut. Our drill met his mutated flesh and dug deep into him. He grumbled in anger then had fallen limp.

"Jeez this better be it," I said relaxing back onto the seat. I looked to Vivy, who was still with us but just barely.

"This should have done it," Sherry declared and hopped off the machine.

I picked Vivy up in my arms and followed Sherry beyond the drill. There was a light on the far end of the never ending hole we've been stuck in. I had to squint a little to let my eyes adjust from the darkness to the overbearing radiance of the sun.

"I'll call for help once we get out of here," Sherry said letting out a sigh of relief. She sure did look glad to be have been done with this long trial.

We stepped out into the bright light that was right above the mountains in the distance. It bounced off all the snow surrounding us making it a little hard to see where we needed to go. Sherry smiled and pointed off in the distance to a town.

"That's the rendezvous," Sherry said happily.

"About damn time," I sighed and smirked. Vivy was struggling in my arms with labored breathing and some type of pain. It was a sad sight to see a petite woman dying in the arms of a stranger with the season of death upon us.

Men jumped out from the trees before us. They were shooting in our direction, but we were lucky that they missed. I dropped to a knee to avoid them while placing Vivy on the snow. Sherry locked and loaded her gun, and I followed suit so we could get rid of these obnoxious disturbances. I had a few kills when I heard a thud that came from my side. As I looked over to see, the large drill arm, of the Ustanak, bashed right into the side of my head which sent me straight down into the snow. That blow shook up my head and made my vision blurry. Sherry laid perfectly still in the snow across the way.

"Uhn, come on, super girl," I whispered to myself in hopes that she would get up. My exhaustion started to set in when I struggled to push myself up. I was a little dizzy.

The Ustanak slammed his heavy foot on my back, knocking my breath out of me, and pressed me deeper into the snow. As he rested his foot, I just laid there knowing there wasn't an easy way to escape when the lady, in dark blue, who gave out those energy shots, walked up.

"You know, those shots of yours, pack one hell of a punch, lady," I said as I tried to glance up. There was a little pause between us.

"So, you're Wesker junior," she said when she crouched down closer to me.

"Wesker? You lost me," I replied accompanied with a confused hand motion. The Ustanak foot was still firmly pressed on my back which wasn't comfortable.

"Albert Wesker was a colossal imbecile, a fool who tried to destroy the world," she explained to me. "He was also your father."

"What?" I cringed. This lady knew my father?

"Which makes you the heir to a very special blood type," she continued with a slight uplift in her voice. She looked off to my side. "I see that you're missing more than just one link to the main chain."

In the silence of her rise and exit, I couldn't wrap my head around the whole situation. My father was apart of something much larger than anything I would have ever guessed. He wasn't a deadbeat man who rummaged the streets. The weight on my back was lifted right before the world went darker than the world I've put myself in.

\- This chapter will be updated with extra descriptions I blew over.


	2. Chapter 2: Neo-Umbrella

An obnoxious buzz had woken me from my routine slumber. The days in Neo-Umbrella had been strenuous and controlled down to the very alarm that was set. I sat in a white room that I've become too familiar with. The corners were rounded off, the walls were tiled, and I hated every single day I had to look up at the boring ceiling.

The door zipped open, and a male doctor walked in, flipping through his papers on a metal clipboard. He mumbled to himself all the way up till he stopped right in front of me. I marked him with my rage as I had sat up then rested back on my hands and waited for him to talk. His demeanor was already getting on my nonexistent nerves.

"We need to get more blood samples from you, and I think they've got you set up for a CSF (Cerebral Spinal Fluid) collection," the man said as he flipped the papers continuously. It really didn't make him look any smarter or competent. "We are heading down to get your blood samples now."

A group of masked men crowded into the room and hurried to shackle me for their safety. They roughly pulled me off the bed where I was doing just fine. One of the masked men grabbed the back of my neck to control my movements easily. They've learned that it was best not to let me have my freedom to move. A couple of these men were apart of the previous skirmish where I had broken their noses because I could hear their rough breath. They got a few nice swings in, but I've been the star of this show. They called in for backup and split us all up.

The hallways looked like they were extended white tunnels that lead to nowhere. The windows were open to the laboratories and other prisoner's rooms. We passed by a room full of vials of liquid and another one with doctors who argued over something stupid, most likely.

We suddenly stopped at an intersection where soft thuds echoed along the hallways. Two of the men around me rushed forward to block the path of whoever ran free. It really didn't take long for them to take the person down.

"Jake!" Vivy yelled out before one of the men knocked her out with his foot.

"Are you serious?" I growled and pushed against the man holding my neck.

"We are on a tight schedule. No distractions," the doctor said. He was not amused one bit.

I was hurried to the office where syringes were prepared for my blood. The men hooked me up to the chair and stood back to stare at me. The doctor just went about with his duty.

"Do you like what you see?" I smirked at the masked men flicking my eyebrow up at them. They spoke their threats and laughed.

The doctor had stuck a thick needle in my arm and started to drain my blood like a vampire. He had three vials that filled up, quickly. The doctor mumbled to himself like clockwork with a little twitch in his jaw.

My body was growing hungry to replace the blood that was being stolen. I just sat there bored and stared at the ugly masks. It couldn't get any better than this? I looked to the door that just sat there like any other mechanical device. I leaned head back to look up at the ceiling, and it made me even more frustrated.

"Can we hurry this mess up, doc?" I grumbled to him.

No one had made any noises, other than the doc's mumbles. Christmas was early this year, and the Grinch sat right next to me. This shit was so boring that I let my mind wander through the halls of this place. It was all from my imagination since I've been restricted to very specific areas. Vivy was slung over the shoulders of one of the masked men just down the hall. They entered a room, that looked similar to mine, and plopped her right on the flat bed. She was different in some way, but I couldn't put my finger on it. With that simple glance in the hall, I mainly heard the hard thud as the foot knocked up against her head. Lightly dragging my fingers across her back, I imagined the rough fabric contouring to her frame. Her hair messy curls dangled off the side of the bed and bounced when I flicked them.

"Get out of La-La land," the doctor hissed as he lazily jumped into action. The guards were on me, like a pack of hungry flies, as each one of them rushed in to contain me. Again, I was walked through the tunnels back to my cell.

"We'll be back for your CSF, soon," the doctor mumbled then stomped off. The door closed right behind him and locked me within this damn room again.

It seemed like I had time to explore my "La-La land" some more. I was worried about how Vivy was doing since she was kicked in the head. I climbed onto the bed next to her, face to face, and leaving little room to move. My nose just barely touched her button nose. There was some splotches of red and purple that had formed right along her cheekbone, and as I ran one finger along the raised skin, it was firm and warm to my touch. I don't know why I was nervous in my own head when I decided to trace my finger along her full bottom lip. The top of my finger just grazed my lips.

An alarm rang out, obnoxiously, throughout the compound. It brought me back to the present too fast for comfort. I sat up and watched as the door swooshed open, and the masked men rushed in. There weren't as many this time around. They were spread thin.

One of the men followed behind as he lead me from the room in cuffs. I couldn't tell what they were whispering about under the masks that muffled their terrible speech. Slowing down in pace, I eased forward, carefully.

"Keep moving," the nasally man demanded as he nudged my back.

"Sorry guys, time to move on," I said right as I stepped back while wrapping his gun with my arm. I tried my best to shoot the two other men ahead of me, but it looked like I could have done better. They just curled in on themselves as they dodged my poor aim. Quickly twisting the gun back around, I had used the momentum to break the mask off this ugly man's face. My movements flowed well into the next as I flipped onto my hands and wrapped my leg around his neck which pulled him to the ground. I spun once again on my knees to where his head was directly locked within my, and I snapped his neck lick the toothpick it was. It didn't take long before the cuffs were off, and I was up and ready to kick the other two creature's asses.

They began to shoot immediately. No, they didn't want to talk this situation out. It was automatically violence. I slipped to the side behind a wall till their guns either jammed or needed to be reloaded. With the sudden silence, I rushed out from the wall and slid under the closest man's legs and took him down by his ankles. His mask broke into many shards as his face came in contact with the hard floor. I crawled over him and locked him in a choke hold then pulled him over to the his friend shoot him up. The reloaded gun went on for a couple seconds and clicked for empty. My arm burned from a few stray shots, but I rolled the dead guy off of me and hurried to the next. Burying my shoulder into his open gut, I slammed him hard against the wall. Then, with no hesitation, and his stunned shake, I lifted him from the ground and made sure his mask broke into his face. His neck snapped immediately making his body go limp. I didn't hesitate to move on, and I went over to the box that popped out from the wall.

"It looks like my lucky day," I laughed to myself as I pulled the switch.

The room went black, and the door swapped its colors and clicked open. I walked up to it and peered through in hopes that there was no one on the other side. It was clear.. I pushed through the door and ran down another white hallway into a large room. This was clearly a maze that I'm going have to wing with navigation. In the movies, they always climbed up high.

"Three test subjects have escaped from their quarters. They must not leave the facility," a thick accented man said over the intercom. "Permission to use firearms is granted."

"Isn't that great," I yelled up to him. I clearly was jealous that they got to use their boomsticks while I wandered the halls empty handed. It didn't stop me though.

A bright white room was at the end of the halls I ran through. Everything seemed calm as I ran in when the man repeated himself through the intercom. A group of masked men ran out from around the corner and noticed me as I popped right in.

"I take back that luck," I mumbled to myself.

One of the men opened fire and struck me in the side which stung for a moment. I jumped to the side as I ran low toward him. With my hand out, I pushed the gun down, with aim beyond my side, and wrapped my arm around his neck. I continued to rotate around to where I pulled him over my side by his neck. He landed flat on his front. Immediately, I kicked his thick skull in like smashing a chip under my foot. This virus must have made their heads weak. Another man rushed me with a taser point directly out. I stepped to the side and let him run right by without a thought. It was easy to clothesline him when they commit to one action. He was on his back grumbling at me. I smashed his throat in with my foot before I moved on to the next sucker.

I glanced around the room and saw that there was a hole in the wall. It was high up where I couldn't reach it. This luck that I thought I was having clearly disappeared right when I spoke the words. As I tried to keep quiet, I snuck around to find anything that could give me a small boost. A large step ladder sat at the farthest end of the room, and it was the only thing that I could use. I braced myself up against the side and leaned into the metal thing. It slowly screeched across the ground.

"Over here," I heard one of them say. My stealth was blown.

"Get him!" Another growled.

I was nearly horizontal trying to push this heavy step when three of the masked guys rushed into the corner I was hidden in. After pushing for so long, I really didn't want to fight them, but there was no other way out.

The first brave one stepped up with his taser zapping violently. That really didn't look like it would feel good. He ran towards me with his arm raised high, ready to smack me across the head. I crouched down so that his direct line of motion was off when he tried to swing. My hands were ready for when the taser came down. I slipped my hands around his wrist and pulled him to my side where he landed on his face. I rotated his arm to his back as I crawled over his body and cracked the bones in his arm with my foot. I took the lone taser and raised it above my head then slammed it right into his neck where I snapped his spine.

The other two thought it would be great to tag team me. They both ran forward, one right in front of the other. The closest guy advanced to my side while his friend continued head on. There was a pause before they both ambushed me, one clung to my arm and pulled back while the other was coming down with his lit taser. From above, a third masked freak came down when the taser jabbed into my side. My muscles pulled together tightly, and I went down under the weight of the new guy.

Placing my free hand on the ground, my muscles ached as I gathered the adrenaline that coursed through my system. I struggled push them off balance as they pulled my arms around to my back. The guy with the taser stepped on my back to try and keep me from moving. I slid my right leg up and pushed to rotate myself and jar the men. Taser guy lost his balance and fell onto the masked man to my right. With my right arm free, I hooked it around the neck of the man, desperately, holding my left arm. A simple crack, and he had fallen limp onto me. He was easy to roll off to the side.

Twisting out of the way, the two men fumbled back to life. I was knelt down with arms ready to redirect any melee attacks when a gun appeared, aimed right at my face. Immediately, I had leaned to the side as the gun fired. My ear rang for quite some time after the blast, but I needed to act. I darted into the man's space as I wrapped my hands around his arm and pulled it while I rotated towards his friend. I kicked the friend as hard as I could. Reaching my arm to grapple his head, I leaned forward and pulled the masked grump over my back to where he landed, partially, on his friend. I quickly smashed his head in enough to be confident that he wouldn't get up.

The last masked freak was catching his balance when I went or a high kick to his masked face. The poorly painted mask shattered upon contact and cause the man to fumble back. I let myself rest for a moment to let the multi eyed man return to his combatant self. He looked about done with me. I pushed forward with a punch to his face with another right after that. To his surprise, I dropped to kneel and grabbed his ankles. He had fallen like the rest of them did. I walked over his and let my foot create a nice dave in his ugly face.

I was tired from these creatures popping up out of nowhere. This corner was a bad trap to be in so I jogged out of it to where I could climb up to the hole in the wall. I stepped up to where I could easily pull myself up over the lip. I crawled through the passage and plopped into an empty hallway that lead to a surveillance room.

The room was dark and displayed most of the rooms in the facility we were all locked in. I glanced over them to find anyone familiar. Sherry darted through a locker room with Vivy following right behind her, both unarmed. In another hall, there were a couple masked freaks marching around with their toy guns. Some of the cameras looked as if they were armed and ready to shoot. I fiddled with the joystick and aimed for the men in the hallways, blowing their brains out with ease.

"I can get use to this," I laughed to myself.

I looked back to where Sherry and Vivy were stuck at a door. They pointed at something I couldn't quite make out. Then a masked man kicked the farthest door open and casually walked in. Sherry and Vivy flinched when they heard the door open up. They saw an open locker and crammed themselves into the box. The masked man walked around towards the door, swivelling his head around searching for odd things. He stopped right in front of the door and clicked a few buttons before stepping into the the wall, passing through the door.

Switching to another camera, I saw that there was a room full of multiple freaks. They just stood around aimlessly even though we were still out free. I guess it was their break time. For the next couple minutes, I used the weaponized security camera to shoot all the masked creatures that were in the room. Then Sherry popped in with Vivy. They rushed over to the next door and inputted a code that was easy to memorise. Three simple buttons and they were through.

Once the door popped open, there was a masked man that stepped out from the other side and grabbed the closest person, Sherry. I couldn't shoot because I would of ended up killing Sherry. I slammed my fists against the security system's desk as I watched them struggle.

Vivy was directing Sherry to do something as Vivy caved her arms and looked like she was doing a small countdown while she walked closer the two of them. In a quick second, Sherry pulled her legs up while Vivy crawled between the man's legs and pulled. He had buckled forward onto Sherry, but she pushed back against him which made his body bend in half at the waist. Vivy wrapped an arm around his neck which caused him struggle to free himself from Vivy.

"Jesus," I whispered, a little surprised with the complexity.

Sherry grabbed one of the guns lying around and shot him in the head right before they both rushed through the door. I scratched my head and scanned the screens once again. They weren't anywhere to be seen. There must have been multiple sections to this large facility that had different security blocks.

I moved on where a similar door blocked my exit. I inputted the same combination they had and let the door swoosh open. Ahead, a wall of bars stopped me, but there was a hole right before it. Isn't that convenient? I crawled through and up a ladder where I discovered I was passing through some modern ventilation system. There were large areas to walk through while other places had me crawling like a kid. A shower was needed after this run around.

I came across the end of the system with another low hole. It dropped me into a room full of lockers that had Sherry and Vivy glancing around.

"Hey, it's you," Vivy, hair cut all off, laughed hysterically.

"Jake," Sherry had said at the same time.

I smiled with content that we were all finally together in a room. Sherry and Vivy were dressed in the white uniforms that covered very little. Their cleavage was open and the gowns were cut to the top of their thighs. I glanced away out of modesty. When I turned back, Sherry had disappeared, but Vivy had been walking along the lockers while rubbing her head. At the base of Vivy's head, there was a symbol etched in her skin.

"What is that?" I asked Vivy as I pointed to her.

Vivy just turned to look at me confused then as if I was boorish. She continued to rub her head until she ran her fingers over what I had pointed out.

"Fuck, I've been branded," she growled. Her fingers danced along the symbol. "What does it look like?"

I walked over to take a better look at it. It was an octagon with even red and flesh sections. There was the company name, Umbrella Corporation, written under it with a long number.

"It's says Umbrella Corporation," I said.

"Damn, no one is going to hire me now," Vivy grunted then stomped away to open a locker.

"Hire you?" I asked rather confused. There was silence in the the room.

"You know…" Vivy began then paused for a second. "Tattoo discrimination. I can't hide this thing till my hair grows out."

I turned to find a locker of clothes to change into and thought about how Vivy seemed like she was hiding something. Many of them were locked as I pulled the handles. Sherry had dressed quickly in a tan button up shirt, with a blue scarf, and pale green capris then wandered over to where Vivy was to check out the tattoo. Click, one of the lockers was open.

"Where are we?" Sherry asked out loud.

"China," I said flatly while I pulled out the clothes from the locker.

"Obviously, but where?" Sherry wanted specifics.

"Probably in Hell," Vivy chimed in.

I looked back to Vivy, and she had thrown clothes everywhere from multiple lockers. Vivy glanced back, and my face probably portrayed my perplexed expression.

"They don't fit," Vivy said. She was the smallest one of the group.

With that, I continued to dress myself with a black Henley shirt matched with dark pants that I stuffed into the brown boots which surprisingly fit.

"We can be anywhere, but if we can find my flat, we can rest," Vivy uttered as I heard more clothes drop to the ground. She was tearing the place apart.

So we all started in Edonia, where Sherry originally was from America, and Vivy being the only one who we know nothing about. I clipped on some leather suspenders to the belt and locked on a holster for a large handgun. When I finished, I sat on the bench that split the room. Vivy opened the last unlocked locker, she could find, and slumped over.

"Do you know anything about an Albert Wesker?" I had inquired the both of them.

Sherry looked at me quietly as Vivy let the white uniform fall. I glanced over her body before quickly turned my head to the other side of the room. We let the room fall to an awkward silence.

"What?" Sherry said.

I put my forehead in my hand and let my fingers run along my eyes. I guess Sherry knew a little something about him. Vivy sat right in front of me to put some black combat boots on her small feet.

"Well, they talked about him. A lot," I continued with the subject.

"I had the pleasure of meeting that fucker," Vivy blurted out. "My father was a workaholic like that Wesker guy."

I watched Vivy carefully as she let her feet settle on the ground and then glanced along the clothing on the floor. She knew him at some point in her life. Who was this girl? Sherry stood off to the side as she stared at Vivy with wide eyes.

"What did you know about him?" I demanded an answer from Vivy.

"I didn't know anything about him," Vivy pushed back against my aggressive question. The silence lingered back into the room.

"I guess he had an antibody that could fight off any virus," I quietly said. "It matches mine."

Sherry sat down on the other side of Vivy, who was kicking around the clothes. A small shoulder holster dangled in Sherry's hands then she had put it on. Vivy bent over and picked up a black jacket. They both remained quiet.

"Apparently, he abused his gift, took it for granted, and then ended up turning himself into some kind of monster," I grumbled into the silence.

"Sounds like he discovered that he didn't have an invincible antibody," Vivy blurted out in a condescending tone.

"The same one I have," I whispered.

"So?" Vivy questioned back.

"You think crazy doesn't run in the family? The man that I am, the things that I have done..."

Vivy grabbed my face with a hand and moved it from side to side. Then she pushed my head up and grumbled to herself before letting go. I slowly let my head down and stared at Vivy.

"It seems like the crazy already has started," Vivy said as she stared right back at me.

I didn't know what to say. Sherry was looking past Vivy to me with arms crossed. It seemed like they were just about to gang up on me since they both looked me dead in the eye.

"It makes a little more sense now," I whispered and looked off to the side. "My dear ol' dad wasn't a deadbeat that skipped out on us…He was actually a freakin' nut job that almost destroyed the world." I darted my eyes to look back at them then leaned over and ran my hands over my head.

"Your father's actions have nothing to do with you." Sherry said as she had shifted around on the bench.

"Yeah, but his blood does. It's the whole reason why we are here, locked up and hunted like dogs," I blurted out angrily. "You think that nothing was passed down from the gene pool?"

"You have his eyes and sharp nose," Vivy sighed and got up from the bench. Sherry followed right behind her.

I grabbed Vivy's wrist right before she past by me, and we were in silence till she ripped her arm from my hand. There was so much mystery around Vivy that wasn't settling well with me. The questions kept piling up as little trickles of her life seeped through the cracks. She knew my father, and she randomly just showed up in this whole situation.


	3. Chapter 3: Buddha

We wandered down a hallway that was rather empty of any type of disturbances. Our feet patted with light thuds from our footwear. This place was made of stone that had fancy windows, of golden designs, that separated us from the outside world. Within a few steps, we bolted up a staircase to our right.

A loud hiss echoed through the halls which made us all look back to see a large creature with spikes embedded along the back of its body. It was a murky green color and violently slithering up to us. Sherry jumped over the side of the stair's railing and landed loudly on the floor below.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Vivy yelled out as her feet skipped higher up the stairs.

Vivy passed me with no hesitation. I slowed down to distract the Strelat from progressing on. It stopped right in front of me and hissed loudly. Perching itself on its hind legs, its body shook aggressively then opened like a frilled-neck lizard with projecting spikes. Sherry shot the thing from the rear side which distracted the Strelat from shooting any of its spikes into me. I took out a large pistol and tried to shoot the disgusting monster when it turned to go after Sherry.

Randomly, my vision had gone blurry and a sharp pain shot throughout my head. My knees buckled, and I had fallen to the floor to gather my buzzing mind. Two masked men snuck up on me while the Strelat had my full attention. I jumped up and used the momentum to punch the nearest one in the mask, breaking the fragile thing into pieces. The freak stumbled back stunned for a moment which let me spin to his heels with his neck fastened in my arm. A simple crack, and he fell to his knees then directly onto his face. The second masked freak rushed in and jumped on my back sending me to the floor.

"Jake, this thing isn't going away!" Sherry screamed between her gasps.

"We are in a heap of trouble!" Vivy laughed as she darted right by me in the direction of Sherry.

I wrapped my arms around the head of the guy and pushed him up over my head where he landed hard on his back. Flipping to face the masked guy, I crossed his arms and pinned them before snapping his neck with my knees.

A loud, ear shattering, boom filled the large area we were in. I darted in the direction of where Vivy and Sherry were. At the bottom of the stairs, a pile of a leaking mass settled on the stone ground. Sherry had hidden behind the stairs while Vivy was around the line of fire. Vivy was covered in a green ooze that dripped in chunks from her black jacket.

"Is this what you mean by trouble?" I asked a little surprised at what had come of the Strelat.

"No," Vivy said a little traumatized from the small chunks of death all over her.

"What is the trouble?" I asked her then I looked up to the top of the stairs and an army of masked men had decided to rush us however they saw fit.

Four of the freaks jumped over the side of the railing to land at the bottom where they hurried over to Vivy and Sherry. The remaining three took their time to size me up as they walked down the stairs to me. I smirked and cracked my neck for a warm up. This wasn't our day.

My goal was to take these three down as fast as I could. I rushed right into the middle of them where I threw a punch, with my right fist, directly into the face of the guy in the center. Spinning on the right, I slammed my elbow, firmly, into his friend's mask. They both stumbled from the sudden attack. This last guy was tackled in his core up against the stone railing of the stairs where I threw punches till I heard a rib crack. Keeping low, I rotated on my toes to face the mindless twins. I began my kick off when the guy behind me kicked my head forward. He must've not been phased by the snapped rib. I rolled over my shoulder and weakly got to my senses on my feet.

The twins, one with a gun, were on my tail fast. The gun blasted a few rounds in my direction with only a bullet passing straight through my deltoid. I smacked the gun out of his arm as I closed the distance between us. In a matter of seconds, I had slammed three punches into his chest, neck and jaw by the time the gun hit stone. I wrapped my arm around his neck and pulled him over my side where the masked freak stumbled over. As I pulled myself back, I dislocated his neck and let him fall limp. His friend hurried over with a weak punch to my shoulder blade that didn't do much of anything but sting. My elbow met his face, once again, but this time much harder.

While I kept an eye on the masked guy near the stairs, he decided that it would be a good idea to run at me. I firmly planted a foot on the stone and lifted the other one forward with enough force to stop him in his tracks. He groaned as his lungs deflated. My foot landed, and I rotated my weight to it so that I could face the other masked guy. I took a moment to calm my nerves before stepping ahead. With every opening, I trapped his attacks and laid a firm hit against his chest. The hit that sent him to the ground was an uppercut to his jaw. The freak instantly fell back to the ground where I stomped on his head hard enough to cave in his skull.

I was getting tired now. Most of my energy had been used with my quick strikes, but there was one more still on my level. I turned to position myself in a ready stance for defense. This last guy was walking to me when he buckled to the ground. I dropped my arms and took a deep breath in then glanced over to see Vivy.

"I don't remember if there were any more after these guys," she said out of breath from running up the stairs.

Sherry was right behind her just as exhausted looking. I stood up straight and moved the shoulder with the hole in it. There was just enough blood to soak through the fabric, but it wasn't anywhere near the worth of worry. Vivy walked up, glanced over my well being and shrugged before we all moved on.

Our small group slowly finished ascending the stairs where we entered a long hallway with a bright red carpet and random cabinets to fill space. We all took a drawer to trudge through.

"I found a weird coin thing," Vivy yelled out as she held up a small disk.

"Who has the 9mil? I found ammo," Sherry asked around. She tossed a small box in her hand.

"That doesn't look like enough to save us," Vivy had laughed at the container. "But that will be me that has that weapon type."

Sherry tossed the box over to Vivy, who loaded the gun up and stashed the remaining bullets. We continued along the hall where we entered a library type room that had two levels full of bookshelves. Vivy had rushed over to scan some of the titles while I casually walked up the stairs to the next level. At the top, I passed one shelf and saw an out of place door at the end. There had to be something behind it that was serious business.

As I approached the door, I heard a thud come from the lower level. I quickly back tracked and peered over the the railing down to a mess that Vivy had made. There were about ten books piled on the ground, and Vivy kept tossing more.

"Is there a reason for that?" I grumbled as I placed the tips of my fingers against my eyes.

"A very good reason, sir," Vivy scoffed at my question. "You see this book." Vivy had thrown the book as hard as she could up to me. I wasn't prepared and got a face full of pages.

"Fuckin' Hell," I babbled on and on.

"It had another one of those coins in it," Vivy continued in her demeaning tone.

Thud after thud, the books hit the floor like rocks in a quarry. They didn't echo loudly in the large room we were in. I tossed the book down into the pile where Vivy just threw stories away.

"We don't have time to tear this place apart," Sherry said from the door. She exited and reentered.

I walked down the stairs and passed Vivy, who was still occuppied. She pulled a folder from the shelf which made her pause with her chaos. Her more carefree demeanor became timid as she read the file.

"What'd you find?" I inquired right before exiting the door. Sherry had left once again and was looking over the rest of the hall.

"Nothing," Vivy exhaled sharply. She took out a couple pieces of paper and folded them small enough to fit into her pocket.

I kept a careful eye on her as she passed me and walked down the hall to Sherry. I glanced back to the empty blue folder on the ground next to the books. There was positively something Vivy was hiding from me. Remaining where I was, at the doorframe, I observed Vivy enter a room with Sherry and exit with a rifle. Vivy had a balanced posture and was very alert to her surroundings. The thing that wasn't leaving my mind was the papers she had gathered from the folder. What were they all about? I jogged over to them and grabbed Vivy by the arm where we went back into the room where she just left.

"One moment Sherry," I said then turned my full attention to Vivy once inside the room.

"What is going on?" Vivy growled as I pulled her down a dark hall.

"Those papers, from the folder, what are they?" I asked persistently and blocked her from any possible exit.

Vivy stared me down with hard, anger filled, eyes that melted to a lifeless hole. There was a wall that wasn't going to be easy to break between us. I didn't know what her intentions were in our group other than to survive, but she didn't need us to do any of that. With what I've seen so far, she could battle her way through anything.

"Finders keepers," she grumbled aloud.

"What are you talking about?"

"Clearly, I was the one to find these, so I'm going to keep them."

Vivy tried to push herself past, but I grabbed her upper arms and pushed her against the nearest wall. This was a little surprising for the both of us.

"What the fuck?"

"What was in that folder?" I had raised my voice for intimidation.

Vivy slammed the bottom of her foot onto my thigh and brought her arms up through the space between us so that she could twist out of my hands. Then she knelt down and crawled out as I gathered my balance back. She was about to touch the door when I wrapped one arm around her neck and the other grasped her waist. I walked back down the hall with her firmly against my chest.

"Let me fucking go," Vivy struggled to say as she thrashed her feet against my legs.

"I'm going to find out what those papers say," I told her bluntly.

I put Vivy chest first on the ground where I sat on her thighs as mine hugged her hips. Both of her wrists fit into one hand while I searched her pockets with the other. The two coins were the first thing I grabbed and moved to my pocket. In her other pocket were the folded documents which I placed on the floor to unfold. Vivy kicked my lower back as hard as she could, but it didn't bug me.

"Get off of me, mother fucker," she yelled at me.

The documents were letters written to an unfamiliar person. They were typed and neatly formatted like an acceptance letter. The formal writing made me a bit confused about what the running topic was, but all the letters were signed by personnel who worked for Tricell.

"What is this shit?" I growled at her as I crumpled the paper into my fist. I flipped her onto her back and held her wrists above her head. "What is Tricell?"

"None of your business," she spat back into my face. Vivy tried her best to squirm free of me, but I wasn't going to let this go easily.

"Why were in the mountains?" I stared into her eyes as she darted them around. "Fucking answer me now!"

"Do you really think I'm going to answer you?" Vivy laughed in my face as a challenge. She continued to twist herself in hopes of getting free.

Vivy's body went lax under me, but her frustration didn't end. Her breathing was heavy from the constant movement and my weight. After a long inhale in, she hissed out a short breath. I hoped it was defeat.

"Jake?" Sherry had called out from the door. "Vivy? We need to move on now."

I took a deep, agitated, breath in and glared down at Vivy. I was going to find out what the Hell she was up to. I've never heard of Tricell, and this information seemed super important for Vivy to hide. These letters meant something, and I wanted Vivy to tell me even if I needed to force her. I wanted to break her.

Jumping up to my feet, I walked down the hallway and left Vivy on the ground. I stepped through the door while Vivy rushed at my heels. Sherry looked at us suspiciously when Vivy and I paused right outside of the door. I waved them off as I headed toward the next hall and took a sharp left. Two more masked men casually walked around the far corner and spotted me as I back tracked. They pulled their weapons quickly and shot holes into the corner I slipped behind.

"We have company," I told the two.

Vivy mounted the rifle to her shoulder, with the barrel pointed to the floor, and lined up ready to take a shot. When empty clicks echoed through the hall, Vivy stepped out and lifted the rifle for two quick shots that hit their target, right in between the eyes.

"Two down with one to go," Vivy said seriously to where I couldn't tell how sarcastic her statement was.

I slowly went back down the hall keeping my eye on Vivy as she walked about a foot ahead. Sherry went to the far side and glided her hand along the cabinets. Vivy hurried to one of the bodies to search for anything that seemed useful.

"You're holding onto them now," Vivy grumbled as she held up another one of the coins.

I snagged the coin and placed it with the rest of them. They jingled together as we walked to the railing that separated us from the large room with a gigantic golden smiling Buddha in the middle. At the opposite end, there were a couple masked men guarding a door. I glanced to Vivy, who was on the same page. She got down enough to where she could aim the rifle. A loud pop echoed through the room which made the others scatter around.

Sherry went to the right as I took the left off the balcony. There was a drop off that lead to the hard tiled floor below. Once I was stabilized, a Strelat popped out from the side of Buddha. It shook its body and prepared itself to shoot spikes everywhere. Another loud pop and the Strelat was stunned by the sudden off balance. I rushed in a threw a heavy punch, with my whole body force, into its core. It had offset the Sterlat a couple steps. I pushed in with the other arm and came back with some goo. Lastly, I had shoved my foot right through the creature with all the force I could muster. It had gone down with no more life left in it.

Vivy crawled out from her perch and joined Sherry at the opposite side of the room. They took down the last masked guy before they hurried to the big Buddha. Vivy slung the rifle onto her back then turned to the double zeros on the base Buddha sat upon.

"Isn't that great," Vivy laughed. "I think we know where those coins go."

"What does it say?" Sherry asked quite puzzled.

"Three medallions to the West," I read the etched words out loud. "And it says it takes ten medallions to gain passage to the East."

"Don't you have the three coins?" Vivy spat out as she pointed to the zeros.

I glanced at Vivy, then to the zeros and down to my pocket and retrieved the three coins we picked up. They fit perfectly into the slot right below the numbers. A rumble began from another statue in the room. It slowly pulled out from the wall and stopped to expose a hidden door. We all turned our heads to see the weird event.

"Who's going first?" Vivy sighed then took off towards the door.

"I'm going to stay out here to look for other possible coins," Sherry said as we all broke off.

I followed Vivy up the stairs to the new door. There was a long stretch hallway that turned to the right with double doors to the left. Vivy was paused at the doors with her eyes glued to me. There was a small stare down as I stalked up to her and pushed the nearest door open. I walked in and was met with two bullets in the side.

"Son of a bitch," I growled then hurried to the pool tables.

Vivy took one step in, rifle ready, and shot off two bullets with one hit. She calmly walked towards me as she reloaded for another shot. Up above, there was a random movement that dropped right on top of Vivy before she could get her shot. The legs scratched violently and backed off from the both of us. It jumped swiftly from one area to another like a small jumping spider.

"God damn that thing," Vivy yelled out to help her swing the rifle around to randomly shoot in the direction of the spider type thing. She had missed each time.

"You get the spider, and I'll get the fucktards," I said calmly and pointed to the quick creature.

"Are you afraid of spiders?" Vivy asked.

"No."

Vivy got up and headed over to the spider thing while I crawled, on my hands and feet, over to the bar for cover. As I kept below the top, I rushed to the other end and popped out behind the masked men. The first one was easy to take down with a choke hold where I also snapped his neck. I picked him up by his legs and tossed him over to his friends which surprised them enough to pause their attack. The next closest freak got a heel in the face which shattered the fragile mask. He had stumbled back against the other guy then recovered into three punches to the face and chest. I twisted around to have enough force when my elbow delivered the final blow to his nose. The bone cracked, and the skull caved in.

The last guy let out a throaty roar and aimed his gun at me. I followed his movements with my arm to where the barrel continued off to the side. My other elbow had come in with a firm blow to his chin. His head flew back as he toppled to the ground. I walked over to his head and stomped his skull in a couple time to make sure he was down for good.

When I turned to look at Vivy, she was pinned to the ground under the scratchy legs of the spider thing. She was trying her best to throw punches, but the spider's legs took turns pulling her arms and legs around. Her growls of frustration didn't help as much as she hoped they would. I ran to the back of the spider and smashed my foot into its back. The creature fumbled to the side and keeled over. Vivy had rolled in the opposite direction, onto her stomach, to regain her composure. I'd gone to the spider to finish it off with a blow to its body. It shriveled up just like the real dead spiders.

"I hope we don't run into any more of those things," Vivy sighed in relief. She got up and went over to the bar and grabbed some of the food that laid around.

I wandered along the pool tables in the direction of the piano. The body glowed with a radiant gold and sparkled under the spotlight where it sat for display. Vivy was right next to me staring at the keys.

"Do you know how to play?" Vivy had asked then took a bite of a crisp apple.

"Yeah. Sure."

I adjusted my arms and laid my fingers on the piano keys. I played a simple melody that echoed through the room like a theater. It only took a minute to play when a coin slid up from the body and plopped down onto the floor.

"Looky what we have here," Vivy said with a full mouth. She picked up the metal disk and passed it over to me for safekeeping.

We left the room without a word spoken between us. Across the way was another door that, most likely, lead to a fancy room. I jogged over to kick the panel in so that if there was anyone inside, they would be startled. The room was empty of anyone but had luxury loveseats with a fancy fireplace. Vivy and I explored the lounge for something useful. She rushed over to the fireplace and pulled another coin from a display. She flipped it over to me, with her thumb, and casually walked back to the door.

"You done?" She sighed as she paused at the door to glance back.

"I guess," I whispered to myself then headed over to her. This would be a good time to get some more information about Tricell.

We walked out and were met with six men that rushed around the corner. Vivy knelt down, took out the rifle, and aimed for the men. She could only get one shot out before the rifle went on a frits and jammed. All the men ran with an electric rod waving in the air.

"What a shit show," I laughed at the sudden circumstance.

As the men ambushed us, I attacked back with one punch. My body was piled on top of to keep me from any advancement. Vivy had gone back into the room with a couple men following her. I struggled against the mass of bodies when Vivy returned with a flying rifle. She swung it down onto the neck of a guy and repeated the chopping motion until I could move more. When my arm was free, I sent a hard punch right against the jaw of the next loser. This was a little bit of a surprise to him. Vivy brought the rifle butt down onto his neck. With the correct hit, it was a one shot kill.

I brought up my leg to wrap around the neck and twist, snapping the life out of him. With the second to last freak down, I rolled away from the last one. He held onto my shirt firmly, but Vivy swung the rifle like a golf club right into his jaw. I had finished rolling back to see that Vivy threw the rifle down the hall.

"That piece of shit hasn't been cleaned in years," she yelled out of anger.

I watched her sulk down the hall to go kick the rifle for the last time. She rounded the corner and disappeared from my sight. I got up and checked to see if all the coins were still in my pocket; they were there. Slowly walking down the hall, I returned to the big buddha and placed the two coins in the slot to equal seven. Where did the other coins come from? Sherry joined me with a few more coins to put in.

"You two are pretty loud," Sherry giggled while the metal clinked in the machine.

"What?" I backed up a step to let her fill up the Buddha.

"Yeah, I snuck around this place while you two lured the group towards you," Sherry laughed and let the last coin clank around. "I went back down that hallway we came from."

The Buddha's head rotated to face the door that lifted up on the right. I glanced around to see if Vivy was anywhere to be found since she stormed off. Sherry went ahead to the door while I walked much slower. Vivy stood by the stairs looking down at something.

"Vivy," I yelled over to her. Did she find any new information?

Vivy turned to face me while she stuffed something into her pocket. I stopped and crossed my arms as she glided her way over. She didn't even acknowledge me when she stepped beyond where I was. She was trying to hide more things. I grabbed her arm before she got too far and pulled her to me. Looking right into her eyes, I furrowed my brows and inhaled deeply.

"What did you find?" I demanded.

Vivy pulled a strawberry from her pocket and held it between our faces. I clenched my jaw from how stupid I felt that it was was a simple snack. She shoved it into my face and pulled her arms from my grasp. I wiped the sticky juice away the best I could. It was smeared along my chin, and I could taste the sweetness as it seeped through the crease of my lips.

"What the fuck?" I growled at her.

"Thought you might want it," Vivy mumbled as she licked her fingers.

"Jake! I need you," Sherry yelled from the distance.

I glared at Vivy then passed by her to head over to Sherry. The door needed two people to unlock it. I put my hand up against the glowing button and clicked it when Sherry did. The door slid open to a dark room with lockers, drawers and a computer system in it. Sherry jumped right through while Vivy stopped right before the door to eat another strawberry in front of me. I frowned and pressed my eyebrows together. Vivy walked through.

Sherry played with the computer while Vivy opened and closed a locker repeatedly. Vivy wasn't being useful at all in our situation.

"What is this?" I asked Sherry.

"Data from your experiments," Sherry replied as she continued to type on the computer.

Vivy paused and looked up to the screen a little intrigued. I scratched my nose and turned around to the drawers behind us. I flipped through a few of them and found a pile of random papers, with nothing important on them, and a cellphone.

"Hello."

"It's all right here," Sherry said as she scanned the screen.

"Why don't you call your boss?" I flipped the phone to face her then held it out. She instantly dialed a number.

I went back to the drawers and continued to flip through shit. Vivy had moved to another locker to play with. She tossed a few folders to the floor and then a stapler.

"It's me, Sherry Birkin."

There was a locker above me that I pulled open. It had nothing but a single piece of paper that had a Tricell logo on it. I lifted it closer so that I could read it.

"Yes, he's OK. We were detained in a facility in China."

Vivy's named popped up on the document twice. The information wasn't clear at all other than she was called for three years ago under Tricell.

"Really?"

I glanced back at Sherry when she flipped the phone to her other ear.

"Alright, I'll send you our exact coordinates."

Sherry finished the call, and I peered over to Vivy, who stared right at me. She had a piece of paper in her hands like she was trying to imitate me. I folded the paper behind the locker door and put it in my pocket. I closed the door and looked back at Vivy as she flung her paper to the floor.

"They're already here in China," Sherry said to me. "It's over. We're saved."

"Hallelujah." I stepped over to Sherry's side and looked over the computer screen. "So, you ready?"

Sherry typed for a second and then pulled a little card out of the machine. She slipped it into her pocket.

"Done. Now let's get the Hell out of here."


End file.
